The invention concerns an apparatus for vacuum packing and forming ground beef (e.g., gyros) such that it can be mounted on a vertical rotisserie for cooking.
In the past, meat which was to be cooked on vertical rotisseries has been prepared in a time consuming fashion. Pieces of beef are typically fed into a grinder where they are ground, the ground meat then being fed to a mixer. Seasonings are added to the mixer and are mixed with the ground beef to flavor as desired. The ground, seasoned meat is then portioned out by weight and is thoroughly kneaded to remove air from the meat. To facilitate cooking on a vertical rotisserie, the meat is formed into conical pieces and frozen. The frozen meat is later skewered and cooked on the vertical rotisserie. As an improvement to the prior technique, it was proposed that the ground meat be packed into cylinder molds with a vacuum producing machine, the packed meat then being trimmed to a conical form. However, such a vacuum machine costs approximately four times the price of a standard grinder/mixer. Obviously, the use of such a device is cost prohibitive.
The necessity of portioning the meat and kneading the meat was overcome by U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,373 to Coroneos. According to Coroneos, the seasoned, ground beaf is placed into a cylindrical mold and is compressed therein forming a pre-weighed portion. Compression of the meat with a lever-operated press removes air from the meat, thus avoiding the step of kneading. A tubular portion is provided in the center of the mold which forms a center hole in the molded meat for easy mounting on a vertical rotisserie. Three or four such beef cylinders are stacked on a skewer of a vertical rotisserie for cooking.